Local ties bind Rutgers' Donigan, Princeton's Barlow

Since Dan Donigan arrived as Rutgers head men’s soccer coach in 2010, he and Princeton’s Jim Barlow have understandably downplayed the significance of coach versus coach in head-to-head meetings, since Donigan went to Steinert High and Barlow is from Hightstown.

But that hasn’t stopped local supporters from jumping on the bandwagon to root for their guys.

Led by soccer fanatics Sam Sortino and Jack Dunn, the Hightstown Friday Afternoon Club has a large crew making the ride up to Rutgers to support Barlow and his team in Friday night’s 55th meeting between the Scarlet Knights and Tigers at 8 p.m. Not to be outdone, several former Spartans attending Tuesday’s Steinert-Hamilton game were talking about taking a group to Yurcak Field to support Donigan and Rutgers.

It may not be about the coaches on the field, but their local ties appear to develop more interest and add an extra dimension to the game off of it.

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“I think any time the local community can support our programs it’s a great thing,” said Barlow, whose team is coming off a season-opening 3-0 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. “It’s not about Danny and me being local, though that may help. It’s about both programs trying to put good teams on the field that people want to watch. Hopefully we can be that kind of team this year.”

Donigan plans on using the home-field advantage to short circuit the Friday Afternoon Club.

“I’ll be sure to tell my ticket people to not let those Hightstown people in,” he said with a laugh. “I mean it is our stadium.We control who comes in and who doesn’t.”

Turning serious, Donigan couldn’t be happier to hear of the Mercer County interest.

“The more the merrier,” he said. “That’s actually awesome. Anything to improve the environment is great. I want to have a great crowd and that’s just good for the guys playing in the game.”

The game will be interesting, to say the least. Rutgers is 1-2-1 and coming off a loss to No. 5 Akron in which it allowed a late tying goal and fell in overtime. The Knights have tied Duke; lost, 2-1, to Elon; and trounced Penn State, 4-1. Princeton is playing only its second game.

“They’ve had a very short window to kind of prepare because of the Ivy League rules,” Donigan said. “They’ve only had one game.It was a tough start for them, but I expect a very competitive and challenging game. Jimmy’s a great coach, they have very challenging players.

“If we don’t come out ready to play sharp and do everything we’re supposed to be doing in all facets of the game, it’s going to be a struggle.”

Barlow is used to being a step behind in earlyseason contests and doesn’t really worry about it.

“We try to focus on the things we can control, and so we haven’t given any thought to the amount of games Rutgers has played compared to us,” he said. “Rutgers has a lot of talented guys and most of them are from New Jersey, so we are familiar with them and know they can play.

“They returned a really strong group from what we thought was a very good team last year, and they’ve added some special freshmen to that mix, so we know we are up against a very good team Friday.”

It gets no easier Sunday, as Princeton’s Garden State weekend caps with a 2 p.m. home game with Seton Hall.

“Seton Hall is off to a great start, and we will have two very tough opponents this weekend,” Barlow said.

They also played a tough Jersey foe last weekend.

“All of our players and coaches were very impressed with FDU,” Barlow said. “We were in agreement that it is the best FDU team we have seen in a long time, evidenced by the fact that in all of their games, including scrimmages, they have yet to concede a goal.

“Having said that, there were parts of the game that we thought went well for us, but against a team that athletic and organized you can’t afford to fall behind, and we gave up two goals in the first half on plays that we did not handle well.”

As for Rutgers, Donigan feels the team needs to sustain consistency.

“I think we’re playing well the majority of the matches,” he said. “We just have a couple lapses, and our guys are angry about those moments and they know what they need to do. They need to focus, play every second, every minute, every play. When you don’t, you’ll get hurt.”

SHAW ON FIRE

The College of New Jersey is off to a strong start, and look no further than Kevin Shaw as to one of the major reasons.

The senior forward from West Morris Mendham High has been blistering the back of the net, scoring seven goals — including three game-winners — in the Lions’ 3-1-1 start. Wednesday’s encouraging 1-1 tie with No. 3 Stevens Tech was the first game he did not score.

Shaw had been a midfielder but got moved up this year by head coach George Nazario.

“Coach Nazario moving me to forward, along with my teammates giving me the ball in good positions, have provided me with a lot more scoring opportunities,” Shaw said. “This year I have been fortunate enough to put away most of my chances.

“So far most of my goals have been pretty much right in front of the goal. For the most part my teammates have done a good job of sending me in behind the other team’s defenders, and from there often times I am one-on-one with the goalie and all I have to do is slip it by him.”

Shaw came into the season as a known commodity after making second-team All-New Jersey Athletic Conference last year while leading the Lions in scoring with nine goals and three assists. And yet, despite obvious attention from opposing defenders, he has managed to slip free and convert at crunch time.

“I think it is hard to stay on someone for an entire game,” Shaw said. “Knowing defenders will be marking me, I am just going to be looking for my opportunities when I am unmarked, or not as tightly marked, and take advantage when I can. I am going to have to be efficient with the scoring chances that I have.”

Shaw is not the only player finishing for TCNJ. After a tough year in which the Lions scored 28 goals in a 7-11 season, they have 18 this year in five games. Sean Etheridge and Greg Perri each have three goals, and Nick Costello has two goals and three assists.

“Many of us, including myself, have improved offensively from last year to this year,” said Shaw, who said the Lions’ goal is to reach the NCAA Division III tournament. “We have brought in some new players, and we are creating more opportunities this year. Once we were able to score a few goals, I think it made it easier to keep scoring.”

NEW ASSISTANT FOR RIDER

Head coach Charlie Inverso hired a new Rider assistant with a strong pedigree this week by bringing Victor Kotynski in to round out a staff that also includes Larry Povia.

Kotynski played in four NCAA tournaments for Seton Hall under Manfred Schellscheidt and has also coached with Schellscheidt, Kazbek Tambi and Gerson Echeverry at Seton Hall and World Class FC.

“We are really happy to have him here,” Inverso said. “We really lucked out getting Victor on our staff.”

MCCC UP AND DOWN

Mercer is 2-1-1 this year, a 2-0 loss to Burlington on Tuesday followed two straight wins. In a 6-0 win Sunday against over Globe, Hightstown’s Thomas Willett recorded a hat trick, while Ewing’s Nana Osei and Nottingam’s Fulvio Destasio each had a goal and an assist. Nottingham’s Uzo Iloka had two assists.